Serving New Hyde Park, Floral Park, Garden City Park, North Hills, Manhasset Hills and North New Hyde Park
$1
Friday, August 9, 2019
Vol. 68, No. 32
N E W H Y D E PA R K
GUIDE TO SENIOR LIVING
THOMAS GULOTTA DIES AT 75
COUNTY NEARS BALANCED BUDGET
PAGES 27-32, 41-46
PAGE 5
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F.P. officials seek more time on Belmont plan Joined by county officials, residents BY TOM M CC A RT HY
PHOTO BY TOM MCCARTHY
Mayor Longobardi said that Floral Park is pursuing their options if the Belmont project moves forward.
In an effort to build local support, the Village of Floral Park submitted its comments for the Belmont development project’s final environmental impact statement three days early. On July 29, the village of Floral Park sent out a copy of its letter to Empire State Development’s Michael Avolio containing its concerns over the Islanders’ hockey arena project in Belmont Park. “As the village has repeatedly stated, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was wholly deficient, based on fundamentally flawed as-
sumptions concerning traffic and other impacts,” the letter said. The reason for submitting the comments earlier than the Aug. 1 deadline was to amend the FEIS and issue what is known as a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. The village’s comments also included requests to local state, county, and town elected officials to join the village in calling on the ESD to amend FEIS and the SEIS due to “deficiencies” with the 8,000-page document. Floral Park’s letter breaks down its concerns by category. In an earlier interview, Mayor Continued on Page 58
Herricks contract unlikely by school year BY TOM M CC A RT HY
Education meeting last week, but cautioned that a new conHerricks Superintendent tract would not be signed in time Fino Celano said more progress for the next school year. “The only thing we can tell had been made in teacher contract negotiations at a Board of you is that we had a session with
our fact finder/mediator in July and we made some progress again and we have another date scheduled,” he said. Celano said the board has another meeting with the Herricks Teachers Association and state-appointed fact-finder in August. While Celano said the board was hopeful of a resolution to the ongoing contract negotiations, he also
said chances of a new contract by the 2019-2020 appeared to be unlikely since an HTA vote would not take place until after the school year has begun. “As much as we’d like to have a contract in place before the new school year, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen,” Celano said. “Even if we were to reach an agreement, the teachers still have to vote on it. The
whole union has to vote on it.” Celano said the next negotiating session is in August before the school year begins. “We’ll see what happens, we did make some progress,” he said. The Board and the HTA have been engaged in negotiations for a successor labor contract since January 2018. Since last fall, a mediator Continued on Page 59
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